The Aerie
The wife and I, we're crazy Indigo Girls fans.
So when the latest tour was announced, we subscribed to a local radio station's "early purchase" program, and got in a day and a half early to buy tickets.
Despite accessing the website as quickly as possible, we couldn't get tickets any closer than halfway back the main floor. This is because the whole ticket-purchasing scheme is as fixed as the US Electoral system, and all the best seats are distributed to radio stations and high-income "ticket clubs" before the tickets are made available to the peasants.
Well, we've sat in those halfway-up-the-main-floor seats about a kazillion times already, and I wasn't willing to accept them again, not for the prices that Ticketmaster wants. Also, the last time
we went to a concert, we noticed another frequent fan had scored third-row seats. When I asked her after the show she told me that she'd bought them on eBay. So that was my plan: rather than settling for "the usual," I wanted to at least see what the prices were for good forward-row seats (at the moment, about $125 apiece for fifth row).
The whole forward-row seats idea was looking like a pipe dream seeing as we're absolutely flat broke right now, and I had just about given up on attending this concert.
So this morning we wake up to Cities '97 as usual (their morning show is actually very nice to listen to -- it isn't smug, angry shock jocks bitching about politics, the deejays are friendly and civil and talk about things in a reasonable fashion), and they're having their "'Much Too Early for a Question' Question" trivia contest... for Indigo Girls tickets.
Now, I used to be a master of radio call-in contests, but those skills have faded. Twenty years ago I used to win tickets and crap off of WWTC ("The Oldies Station") armed only with a dogeared old trivia book and a rotary dial phone. Timing, it was all timing.
But this morning I was barely awake, still lying in bed. Theresa had to nudge me to make sure I was conscious. They asked their question: "The Indigo Girls song 'Shed Your Skin' starts with the line '115, you are 17', what are they referring to?"
Well, even a non-fan could get that one, based on the song title alone, but we both knew the answer.
I just didn't know the phone number.
A couple of critical seconds later, they mentioned it, so I dialed.
Busy. Of course it's busy.
I fumbled groggily with the bedside phone, and managed to hit the hang-up and redial keys.
It rang.
I won!
So now we're dying to see where these seats are. Hopefully they'll be 'way up front!
Posted by Albatross at March 4, 2004 8:16 AM